70% Of N-Central Insecurity Solvable By Dialogue — Presidential Aide – Independent Newspaper Nigeria

She stated this on Tuesday at the capacity building train­ing for stakeholders across the North-Central held at the State House, Abuja.

“From our analysis, nearly 70 percent of the security chal­lenges in the North Central can be addressed through dialogue, reconciliation, intelligence shar­ing, and community engagement, rather than through force alone,” she said.

Recalling the June 5 launch of the Presidential Community En­gagement Peace Initiative (PCE­PI) in Jos, Plateau State, Essiet added: “That historic event was a significant step in our collective journey toward fostering unity, strengthening social cohesion, and empowering communities to take ownership of their peace processes.”

She announced that, in line with Nigeria’s implementation of United Nations Universal Pe­riodic Review (UPR) recommen­dations, her office is partnering the International Communities Organisation (ICO) on a project titled ‘Promoting Community Peace and Strengthening Social Cohesion in North Central Ni­geria.’

At the heart of the effort, Es­siet said, is a grassroots network that leaves no LGA behind.

“At the heart of this initiative is the establishment of a peace structure that will cut across all the 110 local governments areas in the North Central region.

“This structure will not just exist in name; it will be an active platform … focusing on gathering and sharing intelligence, facili­tating continuous dialogue, and helping us identify underlying issues and root causes of conflict. Ultimately, this peace structure will serve as the backbone of sustainable peacebuilding in our region,” she noted.

She stressed that tackling local disputes early is decisive: “Once we succeed in resolving internal communal conflicts and address­ing the root causes of tension we will already be halfway to over­coming insecurity in the North Central,” while armed criminal­ity remains for security agencies.

The training featured sessions on Peacebuilding & Conflict Res­olution, Conflict Dynamics & Community Engagement, and Intelligence Gathering for Peace, alongside state breakout SWOT sessions to map risks, stakehold­ers and interventions.

“This training is not just about acquiring knowledge; it is about forging partnerships, building trust, and developing strategies that will directly impact our communities,” Essiet told par­ticipants. “I urge every partici­pant to be open, interactive, and collaborative.”

Stakeholders highlighted forests and borders as pressure points.

The Commandant-General of the Nigerian Forest Security Ser­vice (NFSS), Ambassador Joshua Osatimehin Wole, said Nigeria has 1,129 forest reserves, with 174 in the North-Central.

He called for tighter inter-agen­cy cooperation and effective forest control, identifying Niger, Kwara and Benue as epicentres requir­ing enhanced surveillance.

“For sustainable peace in our communities, all our forested re­gions must be well coordinated and preserved. We need to protect the forests,” he said.

“We must create additional security agencies to conduct continuous security surveil­lance. Three states border in­ternational frontiers—Niger, Kwara and Benue—and they are the epicentres of insecurity. There should be inter-agency co­operation and effective control of our forests.

“What Nigeria is currently going through goes beyond farm­ers–herders clashes. We must also consider the post-Gaddafi era,” Wole said, noting that mercenar­ies scattered across the Sahel after Gaddafi’s fall.

Director of the MacArthur Foundation, Kole Shettima, un­derlined the centrality of stability to development: “Unless there is peace, you cannot do what you want to do. Peace is essential and paramount,” he said.

He urged the National As­sembly to strengthen traditional institutions. “We have to look his­torically at how our elders solved conflicts and learn from it.”

Project coordinator, Jacob Alagbe, said the programme brings state-level actors together to promote peaceful coexistence and social cohesion, with outputs feeding into state-specific action plans.